By Ugochukwu Glory
Is Nigeria moving forward or backward? Stories of attacks are everywhere in the nation. What kind of future are the current challenges facing Nigeria, including security, preparing the country for? Nowhere is safe in the country as there is a spike in insecurity everywhere you go due to the activities of bandits, kidnappers and Boko Haram members. We are suffering from insecurity in the country.
Imo state is not exempted from the current issues and challenges facing the country. First the month started with anarchy in the wee-hours of Easter Sunday with the attack by supposedly gunmen on Imo State Police Command headquarters in Owerri and the associted jailbreak leading to the release of 1,844 inmates at the Owerri Correctional Centre. The jailbreak was the fourth in Nigeria in about six months.
The attackers, who operated between 1am and 3am also attacked a military base at Ukwuorji on Owerri-Onitsha expressway, burnt a soldier in a car and razed four military operational vehicles.
The growing unrest in Imo State persisted as seven members of the Indigenous People of Biafra and three security men were killed, while gunmen torched the residence of Governor Hope Uzodinma in the Omuma, Oru East Local Government Area of the state.
Ohanaeze President General, George Obiozor, in a statement through the group’s National Publicity Secretary, Alex Ogbonnia, warned youths in the South-East against being used by outsiders and detractors to destabilize the region. Reacting in a statement titled, ‘Ohanaeze Condemns the attack on Governor Uzodinma residence’, the apex Igbo group “considered the attack as a sacrilege against everything moral and ethical in the character of Ndigbo”.
The statement further read, “This is not acceptable and must be condemned by Ndigbo, anywhere, everywhere. We must as Igbo, no matter the cause, not attack our sanctuaries. This is an abomination and a new development that is totally out of character of the Igbo.
Police operatives and their counterparts from the Nigerian Army and the Department of State Services had reportedly killed one Commander Ikonso and six other IPOB members in a raid on the militias’ hideout at Awomama village in Oru. Three operatives, including an officer of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps and a policeman attached to the building were also killed. Government officials and properties being attacked, what does this portray about the state?
Following the killing of one of the commanders of its Eastern Security Network, the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra has said it has just begun its “madness”.
Reports indicate that police operatives and their counterparts from the Nigerian Army and Department of State Services killed IPOB’s commander known as Ikonso and six other militia members in Imo State.
The IPOB men were killed during an early morning raid on their hideout at Awomama village, Oru East Local Government Area of the state on Saturday.
Reacting in a statement signed by its spokesman Emma Powerful, IPOB said, “The killing of the heroic innocent Biafrans protecting our communities and towns from Fulani terrorists’ herdsmen masquerading as cattle herders in cold blood is very painful.”
IPOB also threatened that the Imo State Governor, Hope Uzodinma, and all those who had a hand in “this wickedness will pay dearly”.
What the state is turning into can’t be explained anymore. The state turns into a war-zone, Brothers fighting against each other, blood, blood, everywhere. What is the cause of these attacks?
Some residents of Imo State have yet to get over the bloody attacks on police stations and correctional centre in the state. Attacks on seven police divisional headquarters, two court buildings, two Local Government Area secretariats, the state police command headquarters in Owerri, the Owerri Correctional Centre and an army checkpoint at Ukwuorji on the Owerri- Onitsha expressway between February and April 2021 by gunmen were vicious.
It is getting really bloody in the state. The residents of Owerri are living in fear about where would be attacked next? Loved ones living outside the state are worried about their folks living in the state. Everyone it seems is listening to hear about the next attack. Government officials are busy blaming the oppositions for the cause of the attacks, instead of finding solutions to the problem in the state.
PDP chairman in the state, Charles Ugwu, urged the governor to stop blame games and take responsibility. This is an advice from the opposition party to the Governor of the state who blamed the opposition party for the attacks on the state.
The chairman reacting to the attacks on the Owerri Correctional Centre said that ‘the party was disturbed that stranger elements could gain such easy access into the inner recesses of the central points of security administration in the state and struck without any challenge.’
He said, “We have therefore concluded that lives and property are not safe and secure in the state under the watch of the current regime.”
“In his speeches and interviews since after the incident, he has blamed the opposition and God-knows who else. He struggles rather subtly to exonerate himself and his regime of any complicity in the sad incident. What has happened is a catastrophic failure of governance.
South-East governors and heads of security agencies in the region have issued a communiqué after the first South-East security summit held in Owerri, the Imo State capital on Sunday, April 11, 2021 because of the security issues being faced in the South East.
After exhaustive discussions on the current security challenges in the South-East and with valuable contributions from participants at the first South-East security summit in Owerri. They resolved to strongly and unequivocally condemn terrorism and banditry in any part of Nigeria, particularly in the South-East. The meeting strongly condemned the burning of police stations, violent attacks on custodial centres with the unlawful release of inmates, and the killings including security personnel, natives/ farmers and herdsmen.
The South-East region also launched its own joint security outfit codenamed EBUBEAGU.Some residents in the state are against the set up of Ebueagu in the region. Citizens are comparing the tenures of President Muhammadu Buhari and Goodluck Jonathan.
There is no part of this country that’s not under attack. If it’s not banditry, it’s kidnapping or Boko Haram or killing of security officers. These things were never heard of before, but now, it is our everyday living experience.
Popular singer, J. Martins, has taken to his verified Instagram page that the corruption level under Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.) has risen compared to the past administration.
Vice-President of Nigeria, Yemi Osinbajo said that the current challenges facing Nigeria, including security, are only preparing the country for the future.
Which future are we preparing for?
Osinbajo said Nigeria was able to overcome the current security challenges confronting the nation and this was why the Federal Government is reorganizing the entire security architecture in the country.
And we ask again where is the situation taking Imo to?
